Pages

Thursday, January 27, 2011

West Kentucky Anglicans: An Interview with the Revd. Chris Larimer

West Kentucky Anglicans recently interviewed the Rev’d Chris Larimer the new rector of Holy Apostles Anglican Church in Bardstown, Kentucky. The Right Rev’d. John Guernsey, Bishop of the Diocese of the Holy Spirit, will be installing Chris as Holy Apostles’ rector on Sunday, January 30, 2011.

The Diocese of the Holy Spirit was originally affiliated with the Church of Uganda. It is now a part of the Anglican Church in North America.

In the interview Chris tells us about himself and how he became a journeyer on the Anglican Way. He shares with us his vision for the future of Holy Apostles and his hopes for the growth of the Anglican Church and Anglicanism.

What is your background, Chris? What were your earliest religious or spiritual experiences and how did they impact you?

I come from Johnson City, TN, born to older parents (my mother was almost 40 when I arrived). Though my parents originally were members of the Presbyterian Church, my father’s family had been Brethren / United Methodist – and that was the church in which I was baptized. My mother received a fresh experience of conversion in the 1970s that led to involvement in a charismatic church. When my parents divorced, we moved to the charismatic church full-time. The church grew to 500 in a short time, but experienced a severe split that led us to a membership of less than 20. It was during this time of hardship that I began to get a glimpse of what the church was really all about – not buildings and programs, but a group of people that band together to stick it out during hard times, and to share the love of Jesus among themselves and with those around them....

I could have had a promising career in the REC and the ACNA:) IF I WERE WILLING TO SELL MY SOUL TO THE DEVIL AND BECOME A HIRELING WHO LEADS THE SHEEP TO HELL.

Sorry... But I have more integrity and faith than that:)

You are more than welcome to go to hell with your Anglo-Papist friends.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. (2 Timothy 4:3-5 KJV)

I'm not Pope, yet...they rejected that application, too?!?! And I thought Anglicanorum Coetibus was all about being open. Oh well.

Charlie, I can tell you that anyone who is as angry as you seem to be - and quick to judge with so little evidence - is not likely to have a successful future in any non-isolationist Christian body.

Again, get involved in a fellowship where someone (a bishop, a session, a presbytery) has some authority over you. You are clearly a gifted individual and could be of greater use to the kingdom if you could get some of this anger out. Being in fellowship with other Christians is going to be the only place where you can get that help.

I actually have real character and integrity. My faith is not for sale. When I realized that I could no longer in good conscience be a part of the Assemblies God I resigned. Why? Because I have integrity. I stand for what I believe.

If Luther had taken the broad way, there would have been no Protestant Reformation.

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13-14 KJV)

It's also why I resigned from the Reformed Episcopal Church. I have integrity. I don't sell out to the popular crowd just because the whole denominations wants to go to hell and take me with it. :)

I appreciate the compliment, though.

I know you think attacking me as a person and labeling me as "angry" will change the facts. The facts, however, do not change. Federal Vision, New Perspectives on Paul, and worse--Anglo-Catholicism--are all errors from hell.

I don't think we can have Christian integrity apart being integrated in a community of faith that is accountable to other communities of faith and to the apostolic tradition (meaning the teaching of the apostles as it has been handed down to us through the creeds).

I walked away from the AoG because I disagreed. I also abandoned the PCUSA when I saw that they were irredeemably tied to heresy. I get it...I do. But you malign orthodox persons by an overly-narrow application of what you think is reformed doctrine. (Your version of Puritan Anglicanism has not existed at any time or any place on this planet; it is an ideological construct - not a lived reality.)

Where you and I differ is narrowness of fellowship. I will work alongside anyone who holds the catholic faith (Apostle's Creed, Nicene Creed, and the Quicumque Vult) with integrity.

Why would I leave the catholic and orthodox church of English speaking persons (and her daughter) for the catholic and orthodox church of Italians, Greeks, Syrians, or Russians? I'm not a Roman or Byzantine or Russian or Syrian. I'm from British stock.

The Church of England is both catholic and protestant. She protests the doctinal & juridical usurpation of the bishop of Rome and she affirms the catholic faith of the church. We want unity - unity with Rome, Constantinople, Moscow, Antioch, and any other catholic church. And while doctrinal innovations (papal infallibility, women presbyters, etc) are impediments to full union, union should still be our goal. That's the genius of Anglicanism.

Don't pretend that "the pure doctrine of the Reformation" can be our rallying point. It failed to unite the Lutherans and Reformed. It failed to unite the "Reformed Churches" of the Continent. It continues to fail to unite - even within one city.

What will unite is an orthodox (Nicene-compliant) and godly episcopate. And that is why I am in the ACNA.

Your view is that doctrine is unimportant compared to unity. That's still the heresy you carry from the Pentecostals.

Sorry but doctrine divides. Unless and until Rome withdraws the anathemas against Protestants there can and will be no reunion.

I can understand, Chris. You want worldly success. You have accomplished that by selling out the Gospel for a cheap imitation. So be it.

But my home is not here on earth. My home is in heaven. Eternity is much longer than this temporary life. I'm just a pilgrim passing through.

The real question is, "Where will you spend eternity?" The broad way leads to hell. It seems to me that you have chosen the broad way.

I, on the other hand, choose to side with Christ and His saints who suffer in this world. John Bunyan spent years in prison because he refused to compromise. Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer went to the stake because they refused to compromise.

You, on the other hand, have decided that worldly success in an external institution is more important than true faith in Christ.

Not all denominations are corrupt to the point of no hope but Anglicanism is beyond hope and for the reason you just cited. It's unwilling to take a stand against anything. A church unwilling to stand for anything will fall for anything.

Okay...so I say that we stand firm on the essentials of Christian doctrine as found in the catholic creeds and you rebut that I don't care about doctrine? Sometimes it's like talking to a brick wall.

Charlie, if you think that Anglicanism is unredeemable - that there is no true Christian Church therein to be found - then go align with whoever is left that's a real bona fide Christian Church. (However, if neither the ACNA nor the PCA qualify in your estimation, I can't imagine who is left.)

The Scripture are THE final authority for Anglicans. The 39 Articles teach NOT that creeds are authoritative in and of themselves but that they draw their authority from Scripture.

Fact number TWO:

The Anglican formularies include MORE than the three creeds. The 39 Articles and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer are authoritative sources of secondary authority and draw their authority from Scripture as well.

Fact number THREE:

The 39 Article were written AGAINST the view you are espousing, namely that we are to seek unity with the Roman Catholics and ignore the Protestant Reformation. Anyone who says otherwise either does not know the history of the English Reformation and the Formularies OR they do know and they are deliberately revising those doctrines.

Fact number FOUR:

Tractarianism is a late development and is in fact a reversal of the English Reformation and Holy Scripture.

In light of the above, I'm fully justified in calling you what you are: A Papist and a liar and deceiver. I doubt seriously that you do what you do in ignorance. You know what you're doing is not in line with the English Formularies but you insist on perverting and twisting the doctrines of the Formularies to fit your revisionist views.

I am faithful to the English and Protestant Reformation while you have sold your soul to the Papists.

The PCA is to be judged from one congregation to the next. So far I have no problems attending the PCA in Wauchula. However, since their liturgy is unbiblical and since they do not properly administer the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, I cannot in good conscience become a member there.

They use grape juice and their liturgy does not include a biblical confession of sin.

Also, their worship is too broadly Evangelical. It's not even in line with traditional Presbyterianism.

I never said they were not truly Christian.

I cannot say the same for the Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and the Anglo-Catholics or even the Charismatics and Pentecostals.

Sorry.

Broad is the way that leads to destruction. Narrow is the way that leads to life.

Jesus said that, btw.

The fact that you changed from one group of Pharisees to another speaks volumes.

Q. (9) What is the Rule of Faith?A. The Rule of Faith is The Bible only or "Holy Scripture, which containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation."-(Art. VI; Isaiah 8:20; 2 Tim. 3:15; John 5:39; Deut. 12:32; Rev. 22: 18, 19.)

Q. (22) Can men be saved by the Law or Sect which they profess, if sincere in their obedience thereto?A. No. "Man cannot be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, for Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved."-(Art. XVIII; John 3:36; 14:6; Acts 4:12.)

Q. (24) What authority hath the Church?A. "The Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith; and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything contrary to God's Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another."-(Art. XX; Acts 15:2, 23; 16:4; 1 Cor. 14:26, 40; Gal. 1:8.)

Q. (25) Can any particular Church err?A. Yes. "The Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred; so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith."- (Art. XIX; Rom. 11:20-22; Rev. 2:14, 16, 20.)

1) Take everything he says and does in the worst way possible. It is always best to assume that you know more about his heart and his motivations than he does.

2) Never grant him the understanding for his sins that you want for yours. When you sin, you're just being "human". And after all, who could expect you to do any more with all the bad stuff you've been through? Jesus will forgive you so don't get all uptight about it. Your brother is a different story though. He should know better and work much harder at righteousness. It is clear that he does not really care about obeying Jesus and he needs your caring and sensitive spirit to help him along.

3) Expect him to jump at a moment's notice, but treat every request of his as a life threatening attack. He is, after all, quite lazy and desperately needs you to help him to find some diligence in his life. You, however, have been through the wringer and cannot expect others to understand just how difficult your life is. If others (especially that pushy brother of yours) had any real love in their hearts, then they would not push these unreasonable requests on you.

Thank you for - like the pope - deciding who and who isn't a real Christian / real church based solely on whether or not they agree with you (and hard lines drawn in the 16th century) rather than on objective categories such as holding apostolic faith and order and mission. You've made a fine papist in deed, if not in name.